


Supernatural, Season 6, Episode 9, Clap Your Hands If You Believe

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s06e09 Clap Your Hands If You Believe, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 06, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 10:55:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16575104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and later seasons. Complete.





	Supernatural, Season 6, Episode 9, Clap Your Hands If You Believe

Open to a teenage boy and girl kissing on a blanket in a cornfield. The boy hears and sees something. Instead of taking the girl and leaving, he insists on checking things out. It’s revealed his name is Patrick, and the girl whines for him to come back.

A bright, white light takes him, and it’s shown the girl is standing in an elaborate crop circle.

Awesomely, the credits for this episode play homage to **The X-Files**. Misha Collins isn’t in the episode, but thankfully, the clip of Cas showing his upside down badge is added.

After the credits, there’s a montage of various people talking to the brothers. One of the interviewees is played by Robert Picardo. His name is Wayne Whitaker Junior, and I shall refer to him as Junior. He’s a professional UFO hunter.

The montage ends with an older woman telling the brothers that fairies rather than aliens are responsible for the disappearances. Dean is polite, but Sam repeatedly insults her. Finally, after claiming Sam is suffering from blood sugar issues, Dean drags him away.

They talk about Sam’s lack of soul, and Dean insists Sam try to, at least, pretend to have some empathy.

In the next scene, they try to talk to Patrick’s father, Brennan. He’s a watchmaker, and he’s insistent his son is gone and never coming back. He tries to throw them out, and Sam makes it clear he believes the watchmaker is hiding something. Setting down a card for the watchmaker to call them if he thinks of anything, Dean drags Sam away.

Once they’re gone, the watchmaker asks, “Is that alright?”

In response, a clock twirls around.

Outside, Dean agrees the watchmaker was hiding something. Assigning Sam to do surveillance, he says he’ll check out the crop circles. “But do not engage with, maim, or in anyway, kill Brennan. In fact, I don’t want you making any judgement calls whatsoever. Anything happens? Call me.”

“You know, Jiminy, I was on my own for a whole year. I did fine without you,” Sam responds.

Dean scoffs, “I don’t want to know your definition of fine.”

It’s suddenly dark, and Dean drives to the crop circle. His phone rings, and on the other end, Sam informs him the only thing the watchmaker is up to is alcoholism. He suggests talking to him, again, but hearing something, Dean sees a bright, white light.

“UFO! UFO!” He starts to run.

“Dude, stop yelling,” Sam orders. “You’re breaking up.”

“Close encounter! Close encounter!”

Causally sipping his beer, Sam asks what kind. He goes on about how the fourth kind involves butts.

I don’t appreciate the implication of anal rape once again being played for laughs, but I will give credit to Jared Padalecki’s performance. He does a wonderful job with the comedy in this episode, and I do love the blasé way Sam signals for another drink during Dean’s panicking.

“Empathy, Sam,” Dean snaps. “Empathy!”

Dean is cornered, and he withdraws his gun. However, the bright, white light takes him.

The connection breaks, and Sam’s reaction is to accept his beer and check out the waitress when she walks away.

Later, Sam finds Dean’s phone in the cornfield. The theme from **Close Encounters of the Third Kind** plays, and something shoots across the sky. Sam comes across a gathering of UFO enthusiasts. Upon questioning Junior about how to actually bring a UFO down, he’s given a useless leaflet. He declares he doesn’t need proof due to the fact his brother being abducted has him convinced.

Coming over, a hippie woman expresses shock.

“It’s fine,” he says. “I mean, I’ve had time to adjust.” Heh.

She assumes the abduction happened when the brothers were children, but he clarifies, “No, like half an hour ago.”

Next, he declares Junior a sucky UFO hunter. He starts to leave, and following, the hippie chick flirts. He smirks, and they leave together.

In the cornfield, Dean reappears, and shots fire from his gun. I sincerely hope no teenagers, other humans, or farm animals managed to get hit. Also, I’m not sure how realistic it is the gunshots wouldn’t be heard and the field wouldn’t be swarmed by law enforcement.

He goes to the hotel to find Sam and the hippie chick having sex. Incredulous, can barely contain his outrage. The hippie chick quickly leaves, and Sam realises, “Y-You’re upset.”

It’s established Dean has lost time, and in a funny moment, Dean almost sits down on the bed Sam and the hippie chick were occupying.

Once he’s sat down on the unmolested bed, Sam pours him a drink and encourages him to talk. Dean is reluctant.

Clasping Dean’s knee, Sam says, “It’s okay. Safe room.”

Dean explains how the beings tried to guide him to a table, but he fought back. Sam suggests he take a shower, and he agrees.

The next day, in a diner, Dean insists normal people don’t have sex when their brother is missing. If there’s nothing they can do, they sit in the dark and feel bad. Sam is confused about whether suffering is good or bad, and since Dean can’t remember a time in his life when he wasn’t suffering in one way or another, he has no idea how to respond.

He sees a knit-cap man staring at him from outside the window, but Sam doesn’t see him.

At the hotel, Dean is looking up UFO lore on the internet as he talks to Sam on the phone. Sam is at the local library, and he complains about the various books on the subject. Dean’s response is, “Yeah, well, at least, books have punctuation.”

They hang up, and tiny, glowing light enters the room. Getting a close look, Dean wonders in puzzlement, “Nipples?”

Trapping the light in the microwave, he turns the microwave on.

Later, Sam doesn’t see the black, goopy remains of the light Dean does. Dean explains the light was a tiny, naked female.

It’s established she had wings, and Sam talks about one of the fringe theories he read. It suggests fairies are responsible for things attributed to extra-terrestrials.

I usually never encourage stealing, but I sincerely, truly hope the brothers take the microwave with them and destroy it when they leave. The thought of people using it and potentially eating fairy remains is extremely disturbing. I don’t care how thoroughly someone could clean it, it simply needs to be destroyed.

The next scene has the brothers at the older woman’s trailer. Serving snacks and tea in tiny cups, she explains about fairy mythology. Only people who have been to their world and back can see them, they go after firstborn sons, have a weakness for fresh cream, hate iron, dark ones react badly to silver, and if sugar or salt is dropped in front of them, they’re preternaturally compelled to stop and count every grain.

Sam inquires, “Do you have bigger cups?”

Once they leave, Dean worries he’s caught her craziness, and Sam points out he (Dean) sat on some glitter. They witness the watchmaker loading crates of cream into his car. They follow him to his place, and Dean decides to break in. Sam is assigned to follow the watchmaker.

After breaking in, staying out of sight, Dean discovers tiny male fairies working on watches. Sneaking back out and calling Sam, he wonders if the watchmaker made a deal with the fairies.

Sam says he’ll get back to Dean. After hanging up, he goes over to talk to the watchmaker. “So, Mr Brennan, hello again.”

Jared P’s delivery here is perfect. No one could accuse Sam of impoliteness, but there’s a barely detectable hint of mocking and menace to his tone.

The watchmaker orders Sam to leave him alone, and Sam asks, “Did I ever mention how beautiful your work is?” He continues he’s not sure how one man could put out so much product. “I mean, hell, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a bunch of elves working for you.”

Sam’s face is awesome when the alarmed watchmaker looks at him.

When the watchmaker starts to turn, Sam grabs him. “Except, I do know better, and you have a bunch of elves working for you. So, tell me, how does a father decide to trade his son for a bunch of watches? I mean, I’m assuming you have a soul.” Heh.

The watchmaker takes the statement as sarcastic condemnation, but given Sam’s own soullessness, it’s really curiosity and something of an admission he can potentially understand why someone such as himself would do such a thing.

Meanwhile, Dean notices the knit-cap man across the street, and the knit-cap man copies his moves.

Back at the bar, the watchmaker explains how Parkinson’s put him in danger of losing his business and being unable to support his family. His grandmother used to tell him stories of fairies all the time and left him a book. Using it to summon a leprechaun, he asked for his hands to be cured. The leprechaun offered to make him more successful than he’d ever been by bringing in workers. The exchange was a place for them to rest and “to take of the fruit and fat of the land”.

It turns out, the fruit and fat of the land was Patrick and other firstborn sons.

Sam brings up reversing the spell, and the watchmaker explains how the fairies are keeping his grandmother’s book locked up.

Meanwhile, Dean tries attacking the knit-cap man. Except, he ends up attacking the town’s district attorney whilst shouting, “Fairy!” and threatening to kill him. Because it’s brought up later, it’s worth noting the district attorney is of very small stature.

Naturally, this ends in Sam coming out to discover Dean being arrested. “Fight the fairies,” Dean orders as he’s placed in the back of a squad car. “You fight those fairies!”

In jail, an officer tries to figure out exactly what sort of hate crime Dean committed. He’s not sure if it’s Dean’s belief in the district attorney’s homosexuality or the district attorney’s small stature that propelled Dean’s attack. Dean insists it was neither, and the officer declares, “Son, you are all kinds of messed up.”

Later, a shotgun-toting Sam and the watchmaker go to the shop. The drunken fairies are a combination of unconscious and too busy staggering around to notice them. The watchmaker gets the book, but before he can finishes the spell, an appearing Junior kills him.

There’s some exposition, and Junior offers to get Sam’s soul back for him in exchange for a price.

“It’s locked in a box with the devil,” is Sam’s scoffing reply.

“Your devil, not mine,” Junior counters.

“There’s no freaking way a leprechaun can do what angels cannot.”

Junior scoffs about how, unlike angels, he can do real magic.

“So, you’re my blue fairy? You can make me a real boy again?”

“When you wish upon a star,” Junior answers.

Sam considers it, and then, shoots Junior with iron.

In Dean’s cell, the knit-cap man creepily appears right next to him on the cot, giggles, and pats Dean on the back before starting to beat up on him.

Back in the shop, Sam and Junior fight.

There are intercut scenes of the brothers fighting.

Finally, pouring either some salt or sugar on the floor, Sam breathlessly wonders, “Why didn’t I do that earlier?”

As Junior is reluctantly counting the grains, Sam starts the spell.

“You ass,” Junior hurls at him.

Sam finishes the spell, and all the fairies, including knit-cap man, disappear.

Later, Dean once again opens a beer with his bare hands, and he and Sam sit on the front of the Impala. I hope the not drinking Sam will be the one to drive. It’s revealed the D.A. dropped the charges, and Dean brings up Junior’s offer to return Sam’s soul. It’s made clear he doesn’t believe Sam actually wants it back.

Sam, however, counters, “It was a deal. When’s a deal ever been a good thing?”

The episode ends with a squinting, teary-eyed Dean and an uncomfortable Sam sitting together in silence.

Fin.


End file.
